Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

CP Rail strike: 2,000 employees get temporary layoff notices

CP Rail and the Teamsters union are continuing talks to end a strike by 4,800 employees including conductors, locomotive engineers and rail traffic controllers.

The workers, members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, walked off the job just after midnight Wednesday, shutting down CP’s freight train traffic across the country.

CP Rail has already sent out temporary layoff notices to more than 2,000 other unionized employees including support staff because the system has been shut down, spokesman Ed Greenberg said.

And, if the strike continues, an additional 1,400 other workers could be laid off as well.

The ripple effects of the strike are expected to be felt in all sectors of the economy from coal to fertilizer out West to grain in the Prairies and the auto industry in southern Ontario. CP operates 24,000 kilometres of tracks from Vancouver to Montreal and into parts of the U.S. Midwest.

While operations in Canada have been shut down, CP is still running its trains in the United States. However, shipments into and out of Canada are affected.

Federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt is threatening to introduce back-to-work legislation but says she’s still hoping the two sides can reach a deal at the bargaining table, noting “they are very close.”

Raitt said the government is worried about the possible impact on the Canadian economy, especially for industries that depend on CP Rail to move freight. She estimated that if the strike is prolonged it could mean more than half a billion dollars in economic losses a week.

Parliament is not sitting this week, so the earliest Raitt could begin the process is Monday, but it is likely that the NDP would fight the move.

Teamsters Canada could not be reached for comment, but on its Twitter feed it said: “Our issues are not with Minister Raitt, the government or the Canadian public but with Canadian Pacific.”

CP’s Greenberg said the company will co-operate with any decision by Parliament, but added that CP is willing to enter into binding arbitration to settle the contract.

“This is a completely unnecessary strike,” he said. “CP is seeking pension provisions comparable to those provided to employees represented by the Teamsters at other Canadian railways.

“The union has agreed to these provisions at the other railways — we are simply seeking the same to bring CP’s legacy pension costs into line to remain competitive into the future,” Greenberg said.

Doug Finnson, vice-president of Teamsters Canada, said the labour minister wants the parties to negotiate and that’s what the union is doing.

“CP’s management needs to understand that hiding behind the federal government is not going to resolve things,” Finnson said in a statement. “Workers’ health and safety and pensions are serious issues and they (the employer) would be wrong not to settle them.”

Pensions and postretirement benefits as well as work rules and fatigue management are among the top issues.

Commuters in three of Canada’s biggest cities including Toronto were not affected by the strike, after the two sides agreed to permit train service to operate on CP tracks.

Over the weekend, the union had offered to keep commuter trains running in Toronto as well as Montreal and Vancouver, but CP had initially refused. But after a meeting with Raitt on Tuesday, the company consented.

VIA Rail service has been affected on its Toronto-Ottawa route, because it uses CP tracks between Brockville and Ottawa. Passengers are completing that portion of the trip by bus. As well, trains between Sudbury and White River are also affected.

At Canadian National Railway, which is the largest railroad in Canada, spokesman Mark Hallman called the situation “fluid,” and expected to remain so during CP’s labour disruption.

CN and CP share tracks in two corridors in Canada — in Northern Ontario, just south of Sudbury, and between Kamloops and Vancouver. Traffic is continuing to move in these zones, and CN is providing continued service to its customers over CN lines, he said.

On the union’s website, Teamsters vice-president Doug Finnson announced the strike was on.

“We have made every reasonable effort to get a settlement,” Finnson said. “Every union member knows how important the outstanding issues are. We will not walk away from the negotiation table.”

One of the looming concerns is also management at CP Rail, where a bitter proxy fight resulted in president and CEO Fred Green resigning abruptly. Six directors left the board, after it was clear they would lose in a shareholder vote, led by U.S. activist investor Bill Ackman.

Cost-cutting is clearly on the horizon has Ackman promised shareholders that CP should be able to turn a higher profit.

Although Raitt did not pre-empt the strike at the CP Rail as she has at Air Canada on at least two occasions, Raitt said she is watching the situation closely, noting she was with the parties until 1 a.m. on Wednesday.

Raitt said the situation is different than Air Canada, where she moved to block a strike by mechanics and baggage handlers and a lockout of pilots on the eve of March break.

She argued Air Canada passengers could have been stranded around the world by the grounding of flights.

In this case, the two sides agreed to allow commuter trains to operate and CP is the smaller of the country’s railroads, so CN Rail will be able to pick up some of the freight, she added.

George Smith, a former CP vice-president of industrial relations who now teaches at Queen’s University, said he hopes Raitt doesn’t intervene with back-to-work legislation.

Smith said that experience with Air Canada should have taught Raitt that “you can’t legislate peace” and that she should stand back to allow the collective bargaining process to work.

Since she intervened, the airline has been hit by continued labour unrest including a pilot sickout and wildcat strike by baggage handlers. Those two disputes are now before an arbitrator to settle.

“I’m a firm believer in the process working. I think I’ve heard enough from both sides that they realize what’s at stake,” said Smith, a labour relations expert at the Queen’s School of Policy Studies.

“There’s a lot at stake. And generally when there’s a lot at stake, rational people at a deadline find a way to resolve their differences.”

This work stoppage comes on the heels of a bruising months-long proxy fight with the railway’s biggest shareholder, Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management.

Pershing Square has argued the railway was lagging its peers under Green’s leadership and that a change in CEO was necessary.

After Green’s resignation last Thursday, Stephen Tobias, a former chief operating officer at Norfolk Southern and new CP director, elected on Pershing’s slate, was appointed interim CEO.

The Teamsters’ Finnson said the union has not yet met with Tobias. He said the management shakeup has not affected the bargaining process one way or the other.

CP’s new leadership will have a tough time balancing shareholders’ high expectations against the labour challenges the railway is up against, said Smith.

“In a certain sense, the new management is boxed in by their declaration of an economic revival for CP,” he said.

“The shareholders don’t see that. They see new people who promised great things and here’s the first test of it. Only it came a little sooner than anyone expected.”

Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Vanessa Lu

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